One Very Red Dress

I tried Simplicity 6894 again, this time in a completely unforgiving, show-every-mistake solid red poplin:

I'm not sure why I picked this red, other than that I started working on this dress around Valentine's Day, and I had the fabric hanging around. (I don't wear a lot of red.)

I made the pockets (adding them was my main alteration to this pattern) a little deeper this time. I don't think I have it 100% right yet — the opening is still a little high.

This photo came out funny, but the zipper didn't:

The wrinkles across the back are mostly due to my dress form not being set to my form any more. I changed the settings to take a picture of a much smaller vintage dress and still haven't gotten them back to "normal". (The tangle of cords there on my computer desk is very much "normal".)

Whose advice was it to sew the tucks first, then cut out the bodice? It was great advice, made for very fast construction!

The buttons here are vintage, have had 'em forever. They were my second choice — the first was a set of red, white, and blue buttons that I think I snagged in a fabric swap before I left Chicago. But the red was just a little off … this red is *perfect*.

I gave this a test wear last Saturday — with gray Keds (see below). It was slightly too cold for bare legs in the San Francisco Mission in February, but as long as I sat in the sun (and had a copy of New Scientist to read) I felt fine …

I'm pretty sure I'll make this again … maybe even in another solid color!

I am reading your book “the Secret Lifes of Dresses”. I Love it. I write at little bit about it in my blog http://www.ydochdy.blogg.se Unfortunatly it is only in Swedish. So I wanted to tell you how much I like it here also.

Lovely dress, the colour is terrific! And so are the pleats, I like the idea of sewing them before cutting out the pieces.
Nothing like sitting in the sun with a good mag to read, I love ‘New Scientist’ too.

Mac Berg, sewist extraordinaire at Vogue Fabrics in Evanston, is all about sewing fancy-schmancy pintucks first, and cutting out pattern pieces after. I think this approach holds for other design techniques too – free form shirring with elastic in the bobbin – is one that comes to mind.

I love this dress! I have not posted here before but I have just spent the last 8-10 months reading through your archives and have finally made it to the most recent post! I am not a sewer or really a dress wearer (I have a couple skirts I wear on rare occasion) but I love vintage jewelry and vintage style. I was actually inspired by this blog to buy a shirt dress when I saw one advertised in a Lane Bryant catalog last year. Haven’t worn it yet because it needs shortened (it is an awkward length, past my knees) but I did finally this past weekend fix the buttons that were loose before I bought it! Now for the challenge of shoes that fit…

I’ve noticed a lot (maybe nearly all) of your dresses have the zipper in the side seam. I could see that in a dress with sleeves, but on the sleeveless or nearly sleeveless ones, doesn’t the zipper pull dig into that soft inner upper-arm flesh??? If it doesn’t…I’ve got several patterns to try where that was the only issue stopping me from using them!